Silence - 2016

I am not a big fan of Martin Scorsese but I have watched his movies and some of them I have even enjoyed to certain extent. When I learnt about this movie recently I remembered his previous outing "The Last Temptation of Christ". That movie again had the same effect, it was not a great one but it was good. I have also read about his past with priesthood.

Coming to Silence I thoroughly loved this movie. It connect with me in so many levels. It is one of the most brutal movies I have seen. There were times when I had to close my eyes, it was so brutal.

It has a drama feel and sometimes I felt Andrew Garfield was a misfit but I forgot all about that after an hour into the movie. Yes it is a very long movie and you need lot of patience. I do not think it is also an easy movie to act.

I can also relate to this movie as similar things happens all over the world and in India it is in rising trend nowadays.

For me the movie had two levels. The first one is about God and other one is about us the humans.

One the first level, it asks important questions about existence of God, does God answer our prayers, what about the difficult times when silence was the answer to our prayers. Infact silence is the answer most of the times. We do not get what we ask for. While there was so many answers provided for not getting what we ask for in prayers it is still difficult why God would let down someone who is standing for his faith on him.

On the second level, we as human beings can be so brutal when someone disagrees with us even on a matter like God where it is difficult to prove materialistically his existence. They fight for a concept and torture someone who does not agree with the concept. They even go to the extent of mass murdering people without slightest hint of emotions.

The character who repeats the sin and comes back for confession every time also reminds us of ourselves.

Such movies while it helps you to hold on to your faith also can make you depressed about humanity of lack of humanity.

Definitely I thank Scorsese for making this movie and it will be an important movie in my journey of faith.